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AUROMAX
Next generation Immersive Sound system
Contact Information
BELGIUM
Auro Technologies NV
Kievitstraat 42
B-2400 Mol
Tel: +32 14 31 43 43
info@auro-technologies.com
www.auro-3d.com
BELGIUM
BARCO NV
Pres.Kennedypark 35
B-8500 Kortrijk
Tel: +32 56 23 32 11
www.barco.com/en/contact
www.barco.com
Table of Contents
1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Auro Technologies and Barco are proud to introduce to you the next generation format for
Immersive Sound in Cinema: AuroMax.
AuroMax is the newest member of the Auro-3D Immersive Sound format and
combines the superior 3-dimensional listening experience provided by the Auro-3D
speaker layout and formats with the proven high-quality rendering for Object-Based Audio
(OBA) from Barco Audio Technologies (formerly IOSONO) This combination makes
AuroMax the ultimate immersive sound system on the market.
Auro 11.1 became the format of choice for cinematic use and employs Auro-3Ds unique
concept of three layers of speakers and 6 screen channels. The lower layer, based on the
standard 5.1 Surround speaker layout, is used to reproduce the most common sounds in
real life at ear level. The Height layer, positioned higher up the walls at about 30 elevation,
is able to reproduce distinct elevated sounds, but also crucial reflections that help creating
a truly lifelike immersive sound-field, enveloping the listener as in real life. The combination
of both layers creates a vertical stereo field around the audience, which is the key
element to Auro-3Ds immersive and natural sound experience. Lastly, the Top layer,
positioned above the audience on the ceiling, is then mostly used to reproduce special
effects such as fly-overs or a Voice-of-God. The 6 screen channels divided in 2 rows create
an on-screen vertical stereo field, allowing much better screen sound with more depth,
transparency and more space for the dialogue.
The power of Auro-3Ds unique Height Layer is its ability to create a true 3D sound field
on screen and around the audience without using the ceiling speakers. Additionally, thanks
to the fact that Auro-3Ds Height Layer is a copy of the existing Surround layer, it ensures
backwards compatibility.
By 2015, thanks to the combined efforts with our partner Barco for digital cinema, Auro 11.1
became an established format with more than 550 theatres worldwide committed to the
format, with more than 35 leading post-production studios and 120 international films
released.
Auro-3Ds ground-breaking technology allows for the easy implementation of Immersive
Sound in all existing standards without requiring any change of specifications. This unique
technology can deliver the 5.1 surround mix and the Auro-3D mix in single deliverable,
both versions as intended by the creators while keeping High Resolution Audio in each
channel without the need for any extra bandwidth.
1.3 AuroMax
AuroMax is the resulting format of these efforts, bringing the life-like immersive sound
capabilities and backwards compatibility of the Auro-3D systems, combining them with
the flexibility of Object-Based Audio (OBA) and a standardized bit-stream format for
cinema.
2015 - AURO TECHNOLOGIES NV AuroMax 5/21
2015 - BARCO NV
WHITE PAPER
AuroMax systems provide superior rendering of the audio objects at a low cost, thanks to
the use of the proven high-quality rendering technology of Barco Audio Technologies
(formerly IOSONO).
2 AUROMAX VISION
Auro-3D is known for its superior life-like immersive sound, evoking a higher emotional
response to the story on the screen. This is most noticeable with music and ambient sound
elements, especially when those are natively recorded and mixed in one of Auro-3Ds
channel-based formats (Auro 9.1 up to Auro 13.1). The channels in these formats can
reproduce the crucial 3D reflections around the sound sources which are key to achieve a
natural immersive sound reproduction. These reflections not only create a better tone colour
(still the most dominant parameter for the reproduction of a natural sound) but also enhance
the localization of the recorded sounds.
The unique 3-layered systems of Auro-3D allow for even more precision in the localization
of sounds in the vertical axis than systems using only object-based technology represented
over 2 layers. This is, because our hearing system is horizontally oriented and cannot
experience sounds as phantom sources in the vertical axis between 2 speakers in the same
way as in the horizontal axis. Internal experiments at Auro Technologies have proven that
using 3 layers is the most eloquent way to create a natural spread of sound in the
hemisphere from ear-level up above the listener. Others have also shown that with only 2
height channels (as in e.g. 5.1+2 or 7.1+2), a true 3D space cannot be created (H. Lee,
ICSA2015).
A good Immersive mix is seldom achieved by creating a two-dimensional Surround base
mix and spreading a number of monophonic objects around in the 3D space. The vision
behind the AuroMax format is therefore to first create a natural, immersive listening
experience with channel-based beds, using the traditional and proven methods to
record, mix and distribute sound tracks. Once the channel-based foundation is made,
objects can be added for further refinement of the mix. This approach has numerous
advantages, not only in the workflow from recording to the creation of deliverables for all
markets, but also in the quality of the experience.
Real-life immersive sound, such as complex ambiances cannot be easily captured
(recorded) directly as objects. This is fairly straightforward using stereophonic microphone
techniques or Ambisonics, resulting in a number of channels representing the recorded
sound field. These can then be used by both channel-based and object-based systems (as
part of the beds or as static objects). However, directly capturing individual elements of a
complete scene, such as e.g. each bird in the sound field of a forest, for use as separate
objects is not possible.
It is currently also not possible to apply the ubiquitous mastering process on the complete
mix in (pop) music with the established tool-sets when objects are used.
Starting with scalable channel-based beds (up to 14 channels), capable of recording and
reproducing a true 3D space on compatible playback systems and then adding objects
thus provides the best of both worlds.
With AuroMax, Auro-3D now also adds the flexibility provided by Object-Based Audio,
allowing for more precise placement and movement of sounds on speaker systems that are
capable of taking advantage of this additional information. This requires a higher number of
reproduction channels (speakers and amplifiers), typically between 20 and 32, and specific
hardware for the rendering.
Just like with Auro 11.1, the AuroMax speaker layouts are based on the existing 5.1
Surround layouts, maintaining the largest possible sweet spot and providing the same
experience as intended by the creators to almost every seat in the theatre, for all kinds of
content (5.1, 7.1, Auro 11.1 and AuroMax).
Overall compression/limiting
ET
S
Overall EQ
M
EL
EL
EL
TS
N
C
N
JE
A
H
H
Pan & Vol
B
C
O
TS
C
JE
B
Pan & Vol
O
Object-based Rendering
Pan & Vol Datastream
A
AT
D
A
Speaker
ET
EL R
Pan & Vol
E
S
TS
K
EA
C
N
JE
SP
N
Production Distribution Playback
B
A
O
H
C
Figure 3 - Object-Based Audio Flow
The main theoretical advantage of such system is that the same mix can be speaker-
agnostic and thus potentially be used for virtually any speaker layout, at the expense of
predictability and data rate. In practice, however, there are also some challenges
concerning this flexibility.
Channel
Config
Mixing &
Pan & Vol
Rendering
Summing
Pan & Vol
S
EL
EL
N
N
Object-based
N
A
A
Pan & Vol Datastream
H
A
C
AT
D
A
ET
Pan & Vol
Rendering
M
TS
C
JE
N R
N KE
Pan & Vol
S
TS
EL
O
EA
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Speaker
SP
A
Production Distribution Playback
B
Config
H
O
C
Figure 4 - Hybrid Channel- and Object-based Flow
The distribution container will thus contain both the audio Objects as well as channel-based
audio, representing these Beds. It should be noted that Beds can also be treated as static
objects and carried in the same bit stream as the objects.
This thus also provides the highest compatibility with Auro 11.1 systems, as well as
standard 5.1 and 7.1 Surround systems.
Auro 13.1 Auro 11.1 Auro 13.1 Auro 11.1
L X X HL X X
C X X HC X X
R X X HR X X
Ls X HLs X X
Rs X HRs X X
Lss X T X X
Rss X LFE X X
Lrs X
Rrs X
As mentioned earlier, the use of Object-Based Audio brings some advantages to cinematic
productions, as well as various challenges.
To ensure the best experience in all circumstances with AuroMax, great consideration
was made to address these possible issues in the best possible way.
The Inverse Square Law tells us that in open air, the sound Pressure Level drops by 50%
for each doubling of the distance from the source. A sound of an object reproduced by just
one speaker instead of an array will thus create a very different perceived volume and
spectrum (timbre) depending on the seat in the theatre.
In larger rooms this effect will be more pronounced than in smaller rooms, reducing the
area where the film can be experienced as intended by the creators.
4.1.2 Spectrum
All speakers have characteristics defining how the sound is projected in the room. This is
called dispersion or directivity and changes with frequency. The best sound is
experienced on axis, meaning directly in front of the speaker, while off-axis the speaker
does not project as much high frequencies, leading to a duller sound.
If objects are moving around in a smaller theatre, the sound will not differ that much. But in
a large theatre, the object will sound very different depending on where the listener is
seated, creating a result that might differ substantially from the creators intent.
This thus leads to two extreme cases:
around the room will sound very filtered and that a static object reproduced by a
single speaker would sound too different depending on where seated in the theatre.
TLf HL
TLb HC
HLssb HLssf
HR
HLW
TRb TRf
Lssf L HRW
Lssb C
HLsr LW
R
HRssf
HRssb
HRsr
Lsr RW
Rssf
Rsr Rssb
This configuration is the recommended configuration for most rooms and provides the best
immersive sound experience with the highest compatibility with standard Surround and
Auro 11.1 productions and provides a large sweet spot.
HL
TL HC
HLssb HLssf
HR
TR
Lssf L
Lssb C
HLsr
R
HRssf
HRssb
HRsr
Lsr
Rssf
Rsr Rssb
TLf HL
TLb HC
HLssb HLssf
HR
TRb TRf
Lssf L
Lssb C
HLsr
R
HRssf
HRssb
HRsr
Lsr
Rssf
Rsr Rssb
This configuration is recommended for theatres that want to convert an existing Auro 11.1
system without changing the speaker installation.
4.9 Overview
The table below gives an overview of the reproduction channels of the different zone-based
AuroMax playback configurations.
Channel-based
Bed +
Decryption
Auro-Codec Decoder
AUX Track Forensic Watermarking
1
DCI: Digital Cinema Initiative - Digital Cinema Object-Based Audio Addendum, 9 September 2013 & Digital Cinema Multiple
Media Block (MMB) Architectural Description, 26 June 2014 (www.dcimovies.com)
AAT is developed to enable the Auro-3D Unified Workflow concept, which enables
the creation of multiple deliverables, Channel- and Object-based, from a single mix.
The Auro-Panner can be inserted in any Pro Tools audio track and provides 3D panning
capabilities for both Beds and Objects. By simply enabling the Object-setting in the Auro-
Panner an audio element automatically becomes an object, without the need for any re-
configuration or re-routing, making the mixing process extremely simple. The audio and
metadata of these objects are then sent to the AuroMax renderer, either AATs internal
rendering engine or the Barco/IOSONO external rendering unit for large projects and for
monitoring.
Next to this, the Auro-Mixing Engine in AAT is used to export the various deliverables,
including the Immersive Sound Bit-stream, as well as the channel-based versions such as
Auro 11.1, encoded with the Auro-Codec, and 5.1/7.1 Surround.